Building Your Enterprise Cloud Adoption Strategy with HPE

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomes Alexey Gerasimov, Vice President of Global Cloud Delivery for HPE to discuss cloud consumption, the benefits of the cloud, and how to find the right mix of cloud for your business.

The Value of the Cloud in the Face of COVID-19

We have built a culture of face to face collaboration, but how we approach business and collaboration has changed in the last few months. Cloud has enabled us to be able to work from home. It has powered companies to keep going. We are coming to a point now where the real, true value of cloud can be realized especially those companies still looking to transform to be able to conduct business as effectively as possible.

Public Cloud Works… Most of the Time

Public cloud usage is through the roof right now. Originally, the whole concept of public cloud was centered on speed, agility, cost effectiveness and faster time to market — all of which was not available in on-prem environments. But that has started to change in recent years as on-prem, private cloud, and hybrid options have started to flood the market. Many companies now employ some sort of cloud mix to handle all of their needs. But the question remains, how do companies figure out the right mix of cloud options? Where should workloads go? This is what HPE strives to help companies figure out.

Enterprise Cloud Adoption Needs Strategy

Like any technology, just because you can migrate to the cloud doesn’t mean you should. Your enterprise cloud adoption needs a strategy. Shadow IT won’t work for the cloud.

HPE works with companies to figure out what exactly their needs are in order to recommend the right mix. It’s a multi-phase journey that allows companies to build in increments similar to a devops approach. Alexey broke down the basic steps of the process into strategic workshop, assessment, minimum viable cloud, final cloud solution.

The strategic workshop is the most important step. It lays the groundwork for the entire cloud strategy. Companies first need to answer a few basic questions to get to the strategy behind a cloud migration. Questions include why are we doing this? What problems are we trying to solve? And where can we gain the most business value? 

Objective Recommendations

Once the strategic workshop and assessment are complete, HPE can pitch recommendations that are part of the Right Mix Advisor. The best thing about HPE is they don’t pitch one cloud over another for their own gain.

HPE partners with several cloud providers and pick the best cloud for whatever their customers requirements are. HPE determines what applications and workloads can go to the right cloud infrastructure based on decisions from tech components like security, governance, and finances among other things. They help customers find what they need and then can help the strategy shift as needed as well.

Process of Ongoing Engagement

What works today for a cloud strategy might not work next year or even in six months. Companies can spend unnecessarily more if they don’t pay attention when adding on or dealing with scale. Cloud is a living, breathing entity that HPE can help manage in a few different ways like cost control and managed compliance. Having the right structure in place from a cost approach is critical especially in situations like this where everyone is tightening their belts so to speak. Alexey noted that HPE understands this and helps companies get it right from the start.

COVID-19 and Cloud Transformations

With the outbreak of COVID-19 every company had to step up their game. If they had already started to transform, the process went faster. If they were already in the cloud, they likely needed more bandwidth or compute power. If companies hadn’t transformed at all, it became even more clear that they needed to. The spending must go on to keep business moving forward no matter what the situation is.

HPE stepped in to help even more. First, companies can defer payments for 90 days to get the technology and IT infrastructure set up to continue working efficiently. Second, if companies need cash upfront, HPE is offering a buy back program where they will buy back old outdated technology assets to help with the new IT infrastructure investment.

Furthermore, once IT leaders and companies realize what their cloud strategy looks like, HPE can work with them to figure out how that adoption happens. Whether it’s buying the technology back and managing it for them or moving technology to consumption models, HPE has a lot of different options available to help companies in whatever stage they are in.

If you’d like to learn more about how HPE can help you with your cloud strategy, please visit their website and be sure to listen to the full episode to hear more insights. While you’re at it make sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.